LI-ION AUTONOMOUS BATTERY MODULE FOR SPACE VEHICLES

摘要

The paper describes the design and realization of a battery module designed to fulfil a wide range of mission requirements, integrating small capacity terrestrial Li-Ion cells, charge/discharge electronics based on COTS integrated circuits and logical electronics able to provide an internal management capability. The modular autonomous architecture used gives a number of advantages in term of battery modules number change, modules management complexity and reliability. Moreover the possibility to change the charge current, through an SMBus connection with the microcontroller, makes the battery module able to adapt itself to different or unexpected mission phases. The module integrates six SAFT~(R) Li-ion cells series connected and is presented in two possible configurations: 150 Wh (6.8 Ah SAFT~(R) MP series) 1.35 Kg and 1.14 dm~3, and 60 Wh (2.6 Ah SAFTR MP series) 0.74 Kg and 0.78 dm~3 . The battery charge/discharge electronics is based on Linear Technology ICs: the LTC4100 for the charger and the LT3782 for the discharge controller. The module nominal efficiency is about 70%. The internal control level is performed using a Microchip PIC18F258, that can be integrated in a control area network (CAN) bus. In order to verify the module space environment compliance a tests plan has been reported.